butterbeer

2025-26 School Year–Week Three

This has been a busy week! We had a short day of school on Labor Day, and in honor of our book club also celebrated Back to Hogwarts with Butterbeer:

In religion we talked about the two natures of Christ. Chickadee reviewed adding and subtracting polynomials and multiplying monomials in algebra. She finished the first chapter in science. We continued to read The Wind in the Willows. In writing, she reviewed what makes something common knowledge and the rules about plagiarism. She read about David Livingstone as well as Garibaldi and the Young Italians in history. This week’s recipe from the American Girl Sweet & Savory Treats Cookbook was another dessert…Courtney’s Chocolate, Vanilla & Raspberry Swirl Cake (only we made it with strawberry extract instead of raspberry!).

We also took a field trip to the Central Library in St. Louis to take a self-guided tour of the historic building:

And we stopped at The Soda Fountain at Union Station to share a banana split!

I feel like we’re getting into a pretty good routine with the 2025-26 school year!

Tasty Tuesday–Three Broomsticks

For the first time ever, I’m reviewing a restaurant in a theme park! This is very unusual for me, mostly because we haven’t really gone to a theme park before this summer (unless you count Six Flags, which I don’t). But while we were at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, the Fab Five and I ate lunch at Three Broomsticks, which is in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Hogsmeade area of the park, and we enjoyed our meal so much, I thought it deserved to be shared!

The atmosphere, like everything else in both Wizarding World of Harry Potter areas, is perfect. You really feel like you’re in one of the books or movies, eating in a restaurant in an actual village called Hogsmeade. The place was crowded, and we did have to wait in line, but it moved efficiently, the staff was very friendly, and we had so much fun looking around, it made the time pass quickly.

On to the food. I had assumed that theme park food would be only ok, and the portions would be small, but I was wrong about both. The fish and chips, which Bunny and I both ordered, were excellent…among the best I’ve ever had, and they even had malt vinegar on the tables, which made it even better. Turkey ordered a smoked turkey leg, which he really enjoyed. Ladybug felt the same about the chicken legs she ordered from the children’s menu. And Moose and Chickadee both liked the mac ‘n’ cheese, and the serving was so generous, I could hardly believe it…I can’t think of another restaurant I’ve been to (aside from Red Robin and their bottomless mac ‘n’ cheese refills), that dishes out such a large portion…and there were grapes and applesauce to go with it! The butterbeer, a staple in Harry’s world, was pictured at the Leaky Cauldron, but is also available at Three Broomsticks, and was delicious. Very sweet, but also quite refreshing…we’ve already figured out how to make a copycat recipe at home!

I won’t lie…the prices were pretty high for us. But I don’t think they were unreasonable, given the experience, the quality of the meal, and the amount of food we received. If we ever find ourselves back at Universal, I would happily eat another meal at Three Broomsticks!